ABSTRACT
This article aims to tackle what seems to me to be an interesting paradox: how it is that the ama (Japanese diving women) have come to be perceived as independent women and remnants of an ancient matriarchy? Their work as divers is often seen to be low status labour by both themselves and outsiders, while their labour in the domestic sphere is similar to that of Japanese agricultural women who have been described as strong and independent (Embree 1936; Smith and Wiswell 1982; Bernstein 1983), but by no means as the ‘bosses’ in their households (Smith 1987). The case of the ama, I believe, raises all sorts of interesting questions of interpretation both for the Japanese situation and in a wider, more theoretical framework. The central issue is: is it possible for women to behave independently (whatever that means), to have some economic power, and still be considered to be of low status and subordinate to men?
